The Big Oil/ GOP chokehold is ending

Litigants pissed off about a burning planet are changing litigation strategies

For this week’s column I’m posting my brief talk with Thom Hartmann on changes in climate litigation.

It starts with last week’s momentous decision from the European Court of Human Rights that half-baked efforts on climate violate the European Convention on Human Rights. Although the decision is addressed to Switzerland, it sets binding precedent for all 46 European member states.

Climate litigation is spreading in the U.S. as well, reflecting the staggering- but just beginning- costs of climate change. A new study just published in Nature projects that climate destruction- including destroyed infrastructure, homes, roads, seawalls, crops, habitats and aquifers- will cost over $35 trillion a year by 2049, and will dramatically lower global incomes in the process.

Lawsuits seeking to hold Big Oil defendants accountable are growing. Climate plaintiffs have shifted their litigation strategies to focus on the fossil fuel industry’s deceptive practices. They aren’t suing to change energy policy- barred by the political question doctrine- they’re suing because Big Oil has understood the causal link between fossil fuels and climate destruction all along but lied about it, following the scienter profile of tobacco and opioid manufacturers.

A report by the Union of Concerned Scientists warned nearly ten years ago of “a coordinated campaign of deception” on climate science by ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP, Shell, Peabody Energy and other members of the fossil fuel industry. Those industries, thanks to Citizens United, are allowed to buy federal legislators, explaining Republicans’ slow and amoral response to an obvious climate emergency.

The GOP/ Big Oil stranglehold on America will come to an end when every young adult realizes they can save the planet by simply voting.